EXPLOSION KILLS CHECHEN REBEL TIED TO CARNAGE

By STEVEN LEE MYERS; Andrew E. Kramer and Nikolai Khalip contributed reporting from Moscow for this article, and Jim Rutenberg from Washington.

Published: July 11, 2006

Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel who organized the deadliest terrorist attacks against Russia, was killed in an explosion early Monday, in what the director of the country's security service described as a special operation that began by tracking shipments of weapons and explosives from abroad.

President Vladimir V. Putin declared the death of the country's most wanted man -- who had a price of more than $10 million on his head -- in Ingushetia, a region on Chechnya's western border, a ''just retaliation'' for the bloodshed Mr. Basayev had caused.

The director of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai P. Patrushev, said the operation disrupted plans for a terrorist attack in southern Russia intended to coincide with a meeting of the Group of 8 leaders, including President Bush, which begins Saturday in St. Petersburg.

Mr. Basayev, 41, waged war against Russia for more than a decade. He claimed responsibility for attacks that killed hundreds, many of them civilian hostages. They included the seizure of a hospital in Budyonnovsk, in southern Russia, in 1995, a theater in Moscow in 2002 and, most notoriously, a school in Beslan in 2004, where 331 people died, more than half of them schoolchildren.

He was a cunning military commander, an erratic political leader and, ultimately, a self-professed terrorist and the symbol of a seemingly endless insurgency in Chechnya and neighboring territories in the Northern Caucasus. [Page A11.]

The death of Mr. Basayev may not end the simmering conflict in Chechnya, which since 1994 has left tens of thousands of people dead, strained the Russian military and exposed Russia to accusations of gross abuses of human rights. But it is unquestionably an enormous political and psychological victory for Mr. Putin and for a country that has endured, and at times despaired of, a deadly wave of terrorist attacks.

''This is just retaliation against the bandits for the sake of our children in Beslan, in Budyonnovsk and for all the terrorist attacks they undertook in Moscow and other regions of Russia,'' Mr. Putin, appearing stern, even somber, said in televised remarks during a meeting with Mr. Patrushev.

Officials did not produce evidence of Mr. Basayev's death, but a Web site that often carries statements by him, www.kavkazcenter.com, announced his death on Monday evening, declaring him a martyr to the cause of Chechnya's independence. The statement, which like previous ones could not be verified, said that he died in an accident, not during an operation by Russian forces.

Mr. Patrushev and other officials said that Mr. Basayev was killed shortly after midnight on Monday when an enormous explosion destroyed a truck stopped on the outskirts of Ekazhevo a village in Ingushetia, a mountainous region.

Mr. Basayev was standing nearby, accompanied by other fighters who were traveling in three automobiles, a spokesman for the regional branch of the Federal Security Service, Yuri Muravyov, said in a telephone interview. He said the convoy of vehicles had stopped for an undetermined amount of time.

He said the truck evidently carried a large amount of weapons or explosives, which led officials to believe that Mr. Basayev's group was about to carry out an attack somewhere in the region.

Initial reports early Monday had described the blast as a mishap, perhaps caused by mishandling of explosives. But a police officer in Ekazhevo said in a telephone interview that by the time the local police and prosecutors arrived to investigate, agents of the Federal Security Service had already cordoned off the area. That suggested that they had at least been closely tracking Mr. Basayev's group, and that his death was not accidental.

''It was all sealed,'' said the officer, Aslan Khashtyrev, who described the sound of the explosion as ''like an earthquake.''

He added, ''We were even told not to register this case in our log book.''

At least three others identified as fighters also died in the explosion, Mr. Muravyov said. While Russian news agencies reported that as many as 12 died, Mr. Muravyov explained that the force of the explosion, which was followed by smaller explosions and then several fires, made it difficult to count the victims, let alone identify them.

''We cannot give the exact number of dead terrorists,'' he said, adding that the operation continued late Monday.

Officials said Mr. Basayev's body, blown apart by the force of the explosion, was identified by his most prominent features: his short-cropped hair and bushy beard and a prosthesis below his knee, which he has used since he was badly wounded in February 2000 as he retreated from Chechnya's capital, Grozny.

Mr. Patrushev did not elaborate on the investigation that led his agents to Mr. Basayev, who had evaded capture for years, even as he moved in and out of Chechnya and its neighboring regions, reportedly with the help of corrupt officials.

Nor did he identify the countries where, he said, Mr. Basayev's fighters acquired the weapons and explosives. Russian officials have previously accused Azerbaijan and Georgia, which border Russia, and even countries farther away of providing financial and material support for the Chechen fighters.